Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

The Hippocrates Health Institute: Cancer quackery finally under the spotlight, but will it matter? (David Gorski) Brian Clement, the proprietor of the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida, has been preying on desperate cancer patients for nearly three decades, most recently on Makayla Sault, the aboriginal girl from Canada who died last month from a cancer that could have been cured with conventional treatment. Clement’s hodgepodge of arrant quackery is now getting media attention and a former employee is suing him. He is practicing medicine without a license. Florida law has failed to protect its citizens, allowing Clement to offer false hope at a high price with impunity.

Placebo, Are You There?(Harriet Hall) A translation of an article in French by Jean Brissonnet that offers the best explanation of placebo ever. Placebo controls are essential to clinical research, but the “effect of the placebo” in clinical practice doesn’t exist. What has been called the placebo effect is really a combination of contextual effects that can occur even if no placebo is given; placebo mechanisms are inherent in routine clinical care.

Psychology Journal Bans Significance Testing(Steven Novella) The journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology has banned the use of the null hypothesis significance testing procedure, often called frequentist analysis, where the iconic p-value <0.05 is considered to be the measure of statistical significance. The p-value was never meant to measure of the truth of a hypothesis, only whether the data should be taken seriously. It has been widely misunderstood, is not highly replicable, and is often misused.

Pseudoscience North: What’s happening to the University of Toronto?(Scott Gavura) The U of T is arguably the new pseudoscience leader among large universities. It has endorsed the study of homeopathy for treating ADHD, established a new Centre for Integrative Medicine, announced a collaboration with a chiropractic college, and provided a platform for promotion of pseudoscientific ideas about health and medicine.

The Straw Protocol: A Chiropractor’s Aggressively Promoted Neuropathy Treatment(William London) A chiropractor is aggressively advertising his neuropathy treatments via free dinner seminars and misleading newspaper ads. He uses an un-named electrical device, light emitting diodes, vibration treatments, nutritional education, and supplements. There is no evidence that his protocol works, and he has been fined for false advertising in the past. Consumers should file complaints and let legislators know they object to practitioners who deceptively advertise health services for financial gain and to licensing boards that fail to protect the public.

SSPE: A Deadly and Not-That-Rare Complication of Measles(Clay Jones) Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis is a horrific inflammatory brain complication of measles, a delayed reaction that typically occurs 6 to 8 years after an apparently benign case of measles. Death within 1 to 3 years of diagnosis is almost certain. It is more common than previously thought, affecting 1-2 per 10,000 cases of measles. There is no effective cure, but there is a highly safe and effective vaccine that can prevent it.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

A Day of Science-Based Medicine(Mark Crislip) Registration is now open for the North-East Conference on Science and Skepticism in New York City April 9-12. It includes a full-day program of presentations by the Society for Science-Based Medicine.

The Food Babe’s war on “chemicals” heats up again(David Gorski) The Food Babe uses the “appeal to yuckiness” to spread her ignorance of science and her enmity towards everything “chemical.” She has a new book out and has garnered a lot of media attention, both good and bad. She thrives on opposition and has rallied her troops to attack her critics; but she has never corrected statements that critics have shown unequivocally to be wrong, and she sells products with some of the very chemicals she demonizes.

How not to report about vaccine safety issues, Toronto Star edition(David Gorski) This newspaper published a misleading article about the alleged “dark side” of the HPV vaccine Gardasil. It told an affecting story of a girl supposedly harmed by the vaccine, but in reality there is no evidence that the vaccine was to blame. The newspaper presented an unbalanced, alarmist account and got many of its facts wrong. It was a prime example of irresponsible, incompetent journalism.

Glucosamine Update(Harriet Hall) A new study compared glucosamine/chondroitin to celecoxib, a non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug, in patients with moderate to severe osteoarthritis of the knees. Celecoxib worked better for the first 4 months, but by 6 months there was no difference. The authors recommended glucosamine/chondroitin for patients who can’t take NSAIDs, but the evidence for its effectiveness is contradictory and there are reasons to remain skeptical.

Reporting Research Misconduct (Steven Novella) The FDA monitors drug trials and finds misconduct in 2%. They take steps to correct the problems they find, but they have no systematic way to communicate their findings to the public. Corrections and retractions don’t get published in the peer-reviewed literature. Some people point to problems like these to dismiss science in general, but identifying them is a first step towards improving the institutions of science, which are admittedly flawed but not fatally flawed.

2015 NHIS Report on Complementary Health Approaches (whatever that means) (Jann Bellamy) The National Health Interview Survey asked people about their use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). 34% said they used it; diet supplements, deep breathing exercises and yoga topped the list. Some of the things they called CAM would have been more properly classified as belonging to evidence-based medicine. Research on CAM and acceptance by physicians is weighted towards CAM modalities that are not widely used by the public; homeopathy and acupuncture each account for less than 1.5% of CAM use.

Traditional Chinese Pseudo-Medicine Hodgepodge(Mark Crislip) More is published on acupuncture and traditional Chinese pseudo-medicine than other forms of alternative medicine. Some curious recent studies: acupuncture on a rubber hand, acupuncture produces different fMRI findings when patients know they are being treated, people with lower expectations of acupuncture are less likely to benefit, acupuncture as a treatment for mumps, colds, and flu, speculations about tattoos on Otzi the Iceman, traumatic bruising from Gua sha interpreted as “therapeutic extravasation of blood from the capillary bed,” and acupuncture to relieve pain in a Komodo dragon.

Massimo Polidoro, who announced at TAM 2014 that he will write my biography is now opening a newsletter for all those who are interested in receiving updates, samples from the book, clippings, photos, videos and other exclusive material. You can subscribe here.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

What do we do about politicians and physicians who promote antivaccine misinformation?(David Gorski) Refusal to vaccinate, a public health issue with potentially dire consequences, is being misrepresented as an issue of “freedom” by politicians like Rand Paul And Chris Christie and by antivaccine doctors like Dr. Jay Gordon, Dr. Bob Sears, and “paleo-cardiologist” Dr. Jack Wolfson. Those doctors are providing misinformed consent rather than informed consent, and it can be argued that they should lose their license.

Facing Decline and Death(Harriet Hall) Doctors, and society as a whole, have not been good at facing end-or-life issues. We warehouse our elders in nursing homes, and doctors attempt to “do everything possible” to extend the life of terminal patients, even when it causes unnecessary suffering and paradoxically shortens life. Atul Gawande’s excellent new book Being Mortal confronts the problems head-on; pointing out that many patients would rather live better than live longer. He argues for hospice, quality of life, and respect for individual wishes.

Significant Ruling Against Conversion Therapy(Steven Novella) Conversion therapy or reparative therapy claims that a normal condition (homosexuality) is a disease, and there is no credible evidence that their treatments are successful in changing a person’s sexual orientation. A New Jersey judge recently ruled that they are in violation of the Consumer Fraud Act.

Searching for the supplement in your supplement(Scott Gavura) The New York State attorney general has accused four large retailers of selling supplements that failed to contain labeled ingredients. DNA barcoding revealed that most of the products contained little or no active ingredient, and found ingredients that were not listed on the label, such as rice, garlic, and wheat. We need better regulation and product quality standards.

Alternative Medical Alert Systems in the News(Clay Jones) A parody about what would happen if alternative medicine tried to provide medical alert systems and emergency care. Acupuncture Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) can make the difference between life and irreversible chakra degradation.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

Opposing Chiropractic: Persecution or Justified Criticism?(Sam Homola) Spinal manipulation is a useful treatment for certain types of musculoskeletal pain, but chiropractic is based on a false belief system about subluxations and nerve interference. If chiropractic as a whole doesn’t renounce and abandon subluxation theory and make the changes needed to become a properly limited musculoskeletal specialty, justified criticism of subluxation-based chiropractic will continue to reflect on the entire profession.

Screening for disease in people without symptoms: The reality(David Gorski) A new systematic review examines whether screening for disease saves lives in asymptomatic adults. Mammograms and other screening tests have been oversold, but they are not useless. Screening has other benefits besides just reducing mortality, and risk stratification can be helpful.

A Scientist in Wonderland(Harriet Hall) That’s the title of a memoir by Edzard Ernst, a doctor of uncompromising integrity and courage. He went from practicing alternative medicine to studying the evidence to becoming one of its most prolific and outspoken critics. As a result, he faced astounding hostility from a culture that was indifferent to the concept of truth, lost his job, and made an enemy of Prince Charles.

How Not to Treat Migraine(Steven Novella) Many of the treatments offered for migraine are of dubious evidence and plausibility. Among these are acupuncture, electrical stimulation, and chiropractic. Much of the published research is of poor quality and positive results are false positives reflecting the bias of researchers.

Washington bills: Christian Science no longer an excuse for denying medical care(Jann Bellamy) Washington State law prohibits criminal mistreatment of children and other vulnerable persons, including deprivation of medical treatment. Christian Scientists are exempt from this law and from one requiring reporting of suspected child abuse or neglect; they can deny their children medical care and hide behind a religious exemption. Two bills currently pending in the Washington Legislature would repeal this special treatment.

SfSBM at NECSS(Mark Crislip) Registration is now open for the North-East Conference on Science and Skepticism, April 9-12, which will include a full day of presentations by the Society for Science-Based Medicine. Details and a preliminary program are provided.

Another Misguided Cancer Testimonial(Harriet Hall) Economic analyst Mike “Mish” Shedlock claims that he beat prostate cancer with a cocktail of diet supplements based on his own research. He says his doctors recommended surgery or radiation, but the standard treatment for what his biopsy showed is active surveillance with no treatment. His research was flawed: there is little or no evidence the supplements he chose had any chance of curing his cancer.

Treating Migraines(Steven Novella) Dr. Novella, a neurologist and headache specialist, explains what migraines are and covers the effective, evidence-based options for self-treatment and treatment by health professionals, from lifestyle and diet modifications to over-the-counter and prescription drugs. He will review more speculative and implausible treatment options next week.

Lies, fraud, conflicts of interest, and bogus science: The real Dr. Oz effect(Scott Gavura) The “expert” Dr. Oz had on his show to tout green coffee beans was no expert and had a conflict of interest as a seller of his own coffee bean extract. His company has now been fined $9 million by the Federal Trade Commission. The study the green coffee bean claims were based on was fraudulent. Dr. Oz and his producers didn’t do their homework.

Hot-Zone Schools and Children at Risk: Shedding light on outbreak-prone schools(John Snyder) The increasing numbers of vaccine-exempt children in schools constitute a risk to vaccinated children and to the community. Overall vaccination rates are high, but there are pockets with much lower rates; and parents should have access to information about the vaccination rates in their schools. Examples from outbreaks in the Marshall Islands and Mexico show that herd immunity can reduce the case rate from 1.6% to 0.00004% and prevent deaths.

Selling complementary and alternative medicine: A business ethics perspective(Scott Gavura) A video of a presentation by a pharmacist and a philosopher who looked at complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) from the perspective of commercial ethics. Several ethical principles are violated by selling products known to be ineffective or to contain no medicinal ingredient (like many homeopathic remedies) to consumers who have been misled by false ideas.

Federal research grants are important. They provide money for a huge range of scientific research that otherwise would not be done. We, as a society, have decided that they are good, though both the left and right and everyone in between may disagree about specific programs.

Here is a behind the scenes look at your tax dollars at work for federal research grants and the problems that arise when non-experts have a go at the process.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

Stem cell clinics and unapproved, for-profit human experimentation(Paul Knoepfler) A stem cell researcher explains the need for judicious regulation of stem cell clinics, many of which are offering dubious treatments to patients with unwarranted claims. The most worrisome are chains of stem cell franchising clinics offering experimental products that have not been tested for safety or effectiveness. Vulnerable patients are being subjected to an ill-conceived experiment for profit.

Shedding Light on Unreasonable Decisions(Harriet Hall) Why do some patients reject life-saving medical advice or stop taking their medicines? Decisions are often based on feelings rather than on facts and reason. We would like to believe that if people only knew what we knew, they would make the same decisions we would; but if we felt what they feel, we’d understand why they don’t.

Unfalsifiable Beliefs(Steven Novella) Promoting science can be a frustrating endeavor. Recent research shows how people use several different cognitive defense mechanisms to protect their beliefs from the facts. One common tactic is to incorporate unfalsifiable elements like moral opinions into their belief system.

Are skin-lightening glutathione injections safe and effective? (Scott Gavura) Naturopaths are offering IV injections that promise to lighten dark skin. The rationale is somewhat plausible; but the effectiveness has not been established, serious harms have been reported, and there are questions about the purity of the products being used. Consumers are warned to think carefully before accepting glutathione injections, especially as there is no medical need.

Gut Check(Mark Crislip) Probiotics are probably the wrong answer to a wide variety of medical questions. The evidence is mixed for preventing antibiotic associated diarrhea, and is less than compelling for treating inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, allergies, overweight, and SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth, which naturopaths blame for a whole laundry list of health problems).

It can be illuminating to check the primary sources cited by people making extraordinary claims. Blatant omissions and misrepresentations can distort a kernel of truth into a misleading message. Sometimes, the source can be quite evasive. This is a story of my futile effort (so far) to track down such a source.

As I previously described, on December 22nd, NBC Nightly News wielded the power of pandering in senior legal and investigative correspondent Cynthia McFadden’s misleading report: “Power of Prayer? 'Miracle' Priest Rises from Wheelchair and Walks.” The report’s only redeeming features were the snippets of healthy skepticism provided by Richard P. Sloan, PhD. Dr. Sloan is Nathaniel Wharton Professor of Behavioral Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and the author of Blind FaithThe Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine. On December 23rd, McFadden followed up with a two minute nineteen second report, “Power of Prayer: What Happens to Your Brain When You Pray?,” available for viewing online accompanied by an article by producer Jake Whitman. In introducing the report, anchorman Brian Williams said:

…there’s been a lot of interest expressed in the report we aired here last night about the growing medical evidence behind the power of prayer, inspiring to so many especially given this time of year. But tonight the skeptics get their say in the conclusion of our two-part series on this topic….

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

Skeptic’s Guide to Debunking Claims about Telomeres in the Scientific and Pseudoscientific Literature(James Coyne) Exaggerated, premature, and outright pseudoscientific claims are being made about telomere length being a measure of cellular aging and human longevity, and about treatments to increase telomere length. Telomere research is in the preliminary stages, and the evidence is conflicting. Claims like “soda may age you as much as smoking” are unjustified. The telomere craze relies on assumptions that can be easily debunked by skeptics.

Say it ain’t so, Mickey! A holiday measles outbreak makes the happiest place in the world sad(David Gorski) In a new outbreak of measles in California, infected patients had all visited Disneyland between December 15 and 20. Theme parks are excellent incubators for diseases as highly infectious as measles. Most victims had not been vaccinated, and at least two were too young to be vaccinated. Doctors who support a non-science-based policy of allowing parents to skip or delay vaccines reacted by minimizing the seriousness of the disease and saying they will give the MMR vaccine “if parents are worried.”

Smoking Cessation and the Affordable Care Act(Harriet Hall) Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and the cause of a long list of diseases. Smoking cessation is arguably the most important public health intervention, and several treatments have been proven effective. The Affordable Care Act will help: it mandates coverage for tobacco use counseling and interventions without cost sharing or prior authorization.

Acupuncture, Organic Food, and Other Questions(Steven Novella) Answers to reader questions about pesticides (there’s no evidence that organic produce is safer), acupuncture (as a scientific hypothesis, it has failed), and supplements (marketed with insufficient evidence, exaggerated claims, and insufficient guarantee of purity). We don’t pick on alternative medicine; we just apply the same standards of scientific evidence to everything.

New FDA regulatory role threatens bogus diagnostic tests(Jann Bellamy) The FDA is going to exercise its medical device regulatory authority over laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) that are developed and performed exclusively at a single laboratory. This may put a stop to bogus tests for “chronic Lyme disease” and provoked urine tests for heavy metal toxicity. Tests for bogus diseases should trigger FDA action.

Does a Common Treatment for Childhood Constipation Cause Autism?(Clay Jones) Polyethylene glycol (Miralax) is a safe and effective treatment for childhood constipation. It has been accused of increasing the risk of autism; there is no real evidence, but research is ongoing. Dr. Jones provides a primer on childhood constipation: its definition, causes, diagnosis, and treatment.

SfSBM at NECSS. Update and More(Mark Crislip) Two announcements: (1) the preliminary program schedule for the day of Science-Based Medicine at the NECSS conference in New York on April 10. (2) Mark Crislip’s new book: Puswhisperer: A year in the life of an Infectious Disease Doctor.

Anchorman Brian Williams, shown onscreen with the words “Power of Prayer” (not followed by a question mark) as the backdrop, introduced the segment: “When you consider the news we’ve been covering and the time of the year, this segment couldn’t be more timely. It's about the growing medical evidence of the power of prayer to heal body and soul.”

I guess the producers of NBC Nightly News concluded that Christmas is a suitable time to offer the kind of miracle mongering frequently seen on “The Dr. Oz Show” and that Montel Williams used to offer on his show. When you don’t have a well-documented birth of a human from a virgin mother to present to viewers, you have to lower your standards for what you can offer miracle-seeking viewers.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

Is cancer due mostly to “bad luck”?(David Gorski) Cancer is due to a combination of random probabilistic processes, environmental exposures, and heredity. A recent study showed that variation in cancer risk between different body tissues can be explained by the variation in the number of stem cell divisions in those tissues. Media reports emphasized the “luck” factor and omitted a nuanced discussion of cancer causation and prevention.

Is the Ebola crisis a Reason to Skip RCTs?(Harriet Hall) The rush to save Ebola patients provides a temptation to use experimental treatments outside of controlled trials. That’s a mistake that will only delay the day when we can offer proven treatments to all patients.

Neuroscience and Destiny(Steven Novella) A newly-published review of neuroscience research looking at the predictive value of functional and anatomical imaging raises interesting questions about the role of such studies in learning, psychiatric treatment, and even the treatment of criminals. It explains the current state of research and points to where future research is needed. Brain imaging has great potential, but we are still years away from practical applications.

2014: Chiropractors, naturopaths and acupuncturists lose in state legislatures(Jann Bellamy) In 2014 a number of bills were proposed in several state legislatures that would have expanded the scope of practice for providers of pseudo-medicine and increased insurance coverage of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). They mostly failed. Let’s work to keep it that way. The Society for Science-Based Medicine website will be tracking CAM bills again this year.

Mel asks and I do my best to answer(Mark Crislip) A blogger asks facetious and misguided questions about acupuncture. Dr. Crislip answers them and asks some incisive questions of his own. No, it should not be “further explored;” pseudomedicines like acupuncture waste health, time, money, and hope; and the answer to flaws in mainstream medicine is to improve it, not to explore magic systems divorced from reality.

SfSBM at NECSS(Mark Crislip) The authors of this blog will be presenting a full day of science-based medicine programming at the North East Conference on Science and Skepticism in New York City in April. Registration is now open.

This edition: Qivana supplements and OncoTherm (heat) as cancer treatment

By Harriet Hall, MD

Question: I’m interested in the Qivana company’s products for weight loss and improving cardiovascular disease. Do they work?Answer: Qivana appears to be just another in a long line of multilevel marketing companies that employ a pyramid scheme to sell untested diet supplements. They sell overpriced products with exaggerated claims. They enable a few early recruits to make a lot of money by recruiting lots of other distributors. A portion of each distributor’s profits goes to the distributors who recruited them. The distributors lower down in the pyramid overwhelming lose money. I have evaluated the claims of so many of these companies that identifying their flaws has become a positively boring déjà vu exercise. The Qivana website is full of the usual red flags that raise suspicions about a website’s credibility. It emphasizes business opportunities, makes only the vaguest claims about what its products do, has a “gimmick” that promises a unique approach and sounds sciencey but is really pseudoscientific, features lots of customer testimonials, but can’t cite a single scientific study of its products. The website gives me no information that would make me think their products have any advantage over other weight loss approaches or over the “heart health” provided by the nutrition of a well-balanced diet. Their use of the word “detox” is enough by itself to brand the company as not to be trusted on medical topics.Qivana offers a suite of products: a patented delivery system for a probiotic, a mixture of Asian herbs designed to help you reach your bioenergetic potential (whatever that’s supposed to mean), mushrooms that supposedly boost your immune system (a common pseudoscientific claim that is scientifically meaningless), a mixture of natural “detox” ingredients that supposedly remove metals and toxins, and a natural sleep remedy. They say the ingredients are scientifically proven to help with various things, but the research they refer to is preliminary and largely preclinical. The fact that a mushroom extract has some effect in a mouse or in a cell culture in the lab doesn’t necessarily mean it has any therapeutic effect in the human body. In her book Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All, Rose Shapiro reminds us that you can kill cancer cells in a Petri dish with a flame thrower or bleach. Every webpage ends with the disclaimer that the products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. One is left wondering exactly what they are intended to do and why anyone would want to take them.Do these products work? The way to find out if they work is to do controlled clinical studies, and no such studies have been done. Under the Diet Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA), these products can be sold without any of the kind of supporting evidence that the FDA requires before they approve marketing of a pharmaceutical drug. The double standard is obvious.I’m not saying they don’t work. We can’t know that without testing. But considering the percentage of initially promising treatments that fail to survive the scientific testing process, we do know that the odds are not in their favor. I’m not a gambler; but if I were, I wouldn’t put my money on this kind of thing.Is it a deliberate scam cynically designed only to separate victims from their hard-earned money? Probably not. I’m guessing most of the sellers truly believe they are improving the health of their customers. What they are really selling is hope. Caveat emptor.

Question: There is a Dr. Pyatt in Calgary whose website advertises that he uses an OncoTherm device to treat cancers. Is heat treatment effective for cancer?

Answer: Maybe; but if it is, it’s not very effective and it only has a limited role as an adjunct to other treatments; and what he’s offering is not likely to be effective at all. Pyatt is a naturopath, not an MD. He offers all kinds of other questionable treatments including craniosacral manipulation, chelation, intravenous vitamins, and homeopathy. The OncoTherm device is not approved by the FDA and cannot legally be sold in the US. If it were being used by an American doctor, the clinic could be raided by the government and the device confiscated. Hyperthermia has been used to treat cancer, but it is almost always used in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiation, treatments that naturopaths are not licensed to use. And of course using machines to heat the body can hardly be considered a “natural” treatment.

Hyperthermia is a treatment method that exposes body tissue to high temperatures (up to 113 degrees Farenheit) with the intent of damaging and killing cancer cells. There is a fact sheet from the National Cancer Institute that covers the subject pretty well here.

There are several approaches including local, regional and whole-body hyperthermia. It’s easy to kill cancer cells with heat in the lab (a blowtorch works nicely), but there is very little evidence that hyperthermia is an effective or safe way to treat cancer in live human bodies. Hyperthermia can make cells more susceptible to radiation when used within an hour of radiation treatments. It can also enhance the effect of some anti-cancer drugs. Some studies have shown a significant reduction in tumor size when hyperthermia is combined with other cancer treatments; but other studies have not, and not all of the studies showed increased survival. A number of side effects have been reported, including burns, blood clots, and vomiting. There are few if any rigorous well-designed randomized controlled studies. Research is ongoing. Hyperthermia is promising, but it is not yet ready for prime time; it hasn’t become a generally accepted part of the conventional cancer treatment armamentarium. It is still considered experimental and it would be best to give it only in the context of a controlled clinical trial. Any patient with cancer should be treated under the supervision of an oncologist who is an MD and has experience in providing conventional cancer treatments that have been proven effective. In my opinion, naturopaths (even so-called “naturopathic oncologists”) simply don’t have the necessary training and experience to be meddling with life-threatening diseases.

Dr. Pyatt says the device he is using has "proven benefits in both life expectancy and quality of life...” I think that statement is misleading: it goes way beyond the actual evidence.

Harriet A. Hall is a retired family physician, former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, and health advocate who writes about alternative medicine and quackery for Skeptic magazine, Skeptical Inquirer and Science-based Medicine.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.

Stem cells versus Gordie Howe’s stroke, part 2 (David Gorski) More information has surfaced about hockey legend Gordie Howe’s stem cell treatments for his stroke. A press release (oddly timed on Christmas Eve) announced that the first patient (presumably Gordie Howe) had been treated in Novastem’s study for ischemic stroke. Serious questions remain about the study protocol, the qualifications of the researchers, ethical oversight, exploitation of patients, and how much Howe has really improved.

The Health Benefits of Moderate Drinking(Harriet Hall) Several studies have indicated that moderate drinking is healthier than abstinence. The evidence is not conclusive, and any benefits may be from components of red wine rather than from alcohol itself. If you don’t drink, the prospect of health benefits is not reason enough to start.

Glyphosate – The New Bogeyman(Steven Novella) Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, has become a popular target for anti-GMO fearmongering. Now a computer scientist is claiming it will make half of all children autistic by 2025. Epidemiologic studies have failed to show any adverse effects of glyphosate; it has been extensively studied and shown to be one of the least toxic herbicides.

Detox: What “They” Don’t Want You To Know(Scott Gavura) “Detoxification” is a legitimate medical term, but alternative medicine’s ideas about “detox” and “cleansing” have no basis in reality. Useless and potentially dangerous products are being marketed to treat a nonexistent condition, playing on irrational fears that unidentified “toxins” from environmental exposures are building up in our bodies.

Acupuncture for Withdrawal Symptoms in Critically Ill Infants(Clay Jones) Physical dependence on opioids can develop after as little as 5-7 days of daily exposure, and withdrawal is a concern when infants are treated for pain. A poorly designed uncontrolled study of 10 infants allegedly showed that ear acupuncture has a role in managing withdrawal symptoms in infants in intensive care units. Nonsense!

My first post for SWIFT dealt with the apparent deathbed confessions of Boyd Bushman in which the alleged senior scientist for Lockheed Martin made vast claims about flying saucers, aliens, and other related topics. That post focused on why I find deathbed confessions, in general, to be unconvincing.

The Bushman story got a lot of press in the weeks that followed. It was trumpeted on many websites and blogs as well as radio shows. One of them was an interview of David Sereda, conducted by George Noory on November 2, 2014, on the late-night paranormal radio program Coast to Coast AM (C2C).

“The Quest for the Cures…Continues” is an eleven-episode video documentary series made available intermittently online at thetruthaboutcancer.com to promote dubious cancer treatments euphemistically labeled “alternative medicine.” The most recent “replay marathon” began November 27th and ran for five days. In Part 1, I discussed the marketing of the documentary and the background of its host, Ty Bollinger. In Part 2, I began my discussion of the 68-minute Episode 1. That episode has now been viewed more than 176,000 times on YouTube. I introduced the commentators interviewed in the video, provided a list of ten types of deceptive ploys that commentators make to shift viewers’ trust away from standard treatment methods and toward so-called “alternative” methods, discussed the activities of some of the commentators, and described details about the first three types of deceptive ploys: #1 the passionate personal ploy, #2 the doctors-don’t-know-about-nutrition ploy, and #3 the oncologists-wouldn’t-give-themselves-chemotherapy ploy.In Part 3, I discussed two more deceptive ploys used in Episode 1: #4 the Hippocratic Oath ploy and #5 the allopathic medical monopoly ploy. I also discussed the weird, unimpressive qualifications of the two commentators who pitched ploy #5.In Part 4, I discussed ploy #6: the medical industrial complex ploy, which blames the supposed suppression of supposed cures on vested interests of medical organizations and personnel. I also discussed the vested interests of the commentators who complained about the medical and cancer industrial complex.In Part 5, I described how Burton Goldberg, “the voice of alternative medicine,” misled viewers with ploy #7: the cancer holocaust ploy.I now examine the remaining three of ten ploys I identified in Episode 1 and the commentators that pitch them.Ploy #8: The Health Freedom Ploy

This post is about a small, technical tool that should be in everyone's skeptical toolkit. It finds its place in a wide variety of claims that have almost anything to do with images as the source of that claim.

For example, back in the day, proponents of the Apollo "Moon Hoax" had a lot of different claims they could make. They were wrong, but they could still make them. One of the three or four predominant claims made was, "Why hasn't NASA (or another space agency) taken any photos of the landing sites?" The explanation gets to the limits of physics and optics - something a first-year physics student (or even high school student) could explain, but one that defied most hoax proponents.

SWIFTis named after Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels. In the book, Gulliver encounters among other things a floating island inhabited by spaced-out scientists and philosophers who hardly deal with reality. Swift was among the first to launch well-designed critiques against the flummery - political, philosophical, and scientific - of his time, a tradition that we hope to maintain at The James Randi Foundation.

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